A Gaston County judge acknowledged a mix-up in paperwork that wrongly charged a woman with three counts of failure to appear in court.

Kimberly Dawn Smith had two warrants out for her arrest for failing to come to court. She said that she missed the appearance because she got the dates confused.

But while camping with friends in late September, she was picked up on those warrants, and three additional ones.

The multiple counts of failing to appear in court jacked up her bond, forcing her husband to struggle to come up with bail money and landing her in jail for four days.

At each step in the process, Smith tried to point out that some of the warrants weren’t hers and should have been served to another woman. Her cries fell on deaf ears.

Confusing circumstance

Smith’s maiden name was Gladden.

According to arrest warrants, there’s another Kimberly Dawn Gladden, and she’s also been arrested in Gaston County.

After being picked up in Brevard on the arrest warrants, Smith spent four days in jail while her husband came up with the cash to get her out.

A review of the warrants reveals the error.

Two of the warrants clearly list Smith, under her maiden name, along with her address, date of birth and Social Security number. Three others also have Smith’s maiden name, but they list different addresses, birth date and Social Security number.

Smith is 33.

The other Kimberly Dawn Gladden, 32, was arrested in 2007 and 2008 and failed to appear in court in 2008 on charges of simple drug possession, driving while license revoked and operating a vehicle without insurance.

Sorting through the error

Smith said she tried to tell the officers who processed her in Transylvania County that there had been a mistake. She said she tried to tell the magistrate judge, but all involved said they were merely executing warrants from Gaston County.

She was assigned a $4,000 secured bond.

Smith made her first appearance in Gaston County District Court.

The judge increased her bond to $10,000 and assigned her a public defender, refusing to listen to Smith’s explanation. She was also ordered to report to pretrial services once released from jail.

After four days in jail, Smith got out when her husband came up with the $600 to pay a bail bondsman.

Each week Smith had to call pretrial services and physically report in. Because Smith doesn’t have a car, she walked to her appointments for two weeks.

Finding a solution

Before going to court on the failure to appear charges, Smith resolved her own charges – DWI and driving with a revoked license.

Her two charges were reduced to one – reckless driving. Smith paid a fine for the misdemeanor and finally put that matter to bed.

On Oct. 16, Smith went to court with her public defender for the failure to appear charges. The judge dropped one of the warrants that didn’t belong to her.

Smith’s attorney told her she would have to address each mistaken warrant individually during each appearance.

Two days later Smith went to court again and asked the judge to look at all of them. The two other warrants were taken out of Smith’s file.

Because Smith no longer had any pending cases, District Court Judge James Jackson released her from pretrial drug and alcohol counseling.

Jackson issued a court order for Smith that plainly separates the two women’s identities:

“Due to these charges being against Kimberly Dawn Gladden, birthdate 1-21-1980, it is herby ordered that Kimberly Dawn Smith, birthdate 8-30-1979, not be served with any warrants regarding the above captioned matters.”

Jackson suggested that Smith keep a copy of the order on her in case any further confusion comes up.

Smith now keeps the paper in her wallet.

Still waiting for an apology

Smith said she’s happy to have all of the court mess behind her.

But she’s not completely satisfied with the outcome.

The time Smith spent in jail and complying with orders from the court can never be given back. And she’s still out the $600 paid to the bail bondsman.

She now carries the court document with her at all times in hopes that the confusion will never happen again.

The Gastonia woman said she never got so much as an “I’m sorry” from the system that failed her.

“I still didn’t get an apology from anyone. That would’ve been nice,” she said.

You can reach reporter Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and twitter.com/GazetteDiane.